Some Information about this film

Epic Dust:  An Extravaganza of Infamy in the West started over two years ago when I had a vision in the desert.  I was the passenger in a packed van headed to the Grand Canyon.  It was the first time I'd heard Godspeed You Black Emporer's album F# A# Infinity and we drove through a lightning storm.  The combination of the music, the desert and the lightning was like a witch's caldron to me.  From that experience I wrote a western entitled Riderless in which a Confederate soldier rides a burro across the country to die in the Western Lands.  He is being followed by lightning.  I probably did five drafts of that script with help from Jamie Van Camp.  Unfortunately, it was never made.

I guess I just can't move on without making some kind of western.  So I came up with Epic Dust.  Inspired by Billy the Kid, Twin Peaks and Borges.  Twin Peaks influenced me to make Epic Dust in Episodes, while Borges inspired a circular conception for the whole.  Think of a film as a hurricane or whirlwind or circus.  There is a chorus of dancers around the barker and you are trying to make out his words.  The meaning, the soul is in the exact middle.  Not hidden but obscured.  Occluded, as Philip K. Dick would say.  Have you ever dreamt you were standing in the center of a doorless room?  Epic Dust is conceived in this way.

There will be seven episodes to Epic Dust.  The first three are written.  Episode one is entitled "Moon Trouble," and features the young Billy the Kid.  Episode two is entitled "And Ed Saw that it was Good," and features a retelling of the Jewish Golem myth.  The third episode is called "I Remember me," featuring Jamie Van Camp as the murderer Grovenor Layton.  The last four episodes are somewhat planned out.  I know there will be an episode featuring Joaquin Murrieta entitled "Not So Darn Dead."  I hope to have guest writers and directors for episodes 4, 5 and 6.  My beautiful wife Heather has informed me she is going to start writing an episode tonight!

I envision this film being completely free and involving documentary, melodrama, musical performance, nature sequences, pantomime and any other form of expression.  There is a controversy right now in New Mexico as to whether Billy the Kid should be pardoned posthumously or not.  I hope to incorporate that question into the film and am making a trip to Arizona and New Mexico soon.  If you wish to contribute to this film and live in these states please contact me and we'll try to put you in the film.

Contributions to the Kickstarter campaign will help with costumes, props, sets, set design, gas, food and some musical equipment.  We once made a feature-length film for about $100, so we try and make films as cheaply as possible.  It is disturbing how much money and waste go into Hollywood films.  I find it very hard to seek funding for creative endeavors and am grateful to Kickstarter for making it easier for modest productions like ours.

I don't know what else to say.  I will blog more in the future.  Look forward to me blogging about amateur film, film and dream, cinema Caldera, Jocelyn Jade Noir, the Epic Dust cast and for progress on the film.  Thanks.

Also, ask me a question and I'll answer it.